CW: fatphobia

In film, video games, and other visual media the depiction of fat bodies is shorthand for monstrosity. The fat body itself is the beginning and end of this investigation of discomfort.

Pictured: Left 4 Dead 2, Overlord, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Resident Evil 6

The implication is that artists believe the simple sight of a fat body will induce revulsion. This is, of course, borne out by our culture's ingrained and virulent fatphobia.

Pictured: D&D 3.5 Monster Manual III, Blade, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, God of War II

I can think of only a handful of films and video games where the sight of a fat body is not clearly intended to evoke disgust. I'm so tired of seeing this lazy, hateful design choice deployed.

Pictured: Mad Max: Fury Road, Dawn of the Dead (2004), Se7en, Hitman: Contracts

It penetrates every corner of popular media, reinforcing dismissal of fat people as complex human beings. When we're shown again and again as greedy, hateful, mindless bags of flesh it takes a toll on us, grinds down our ability to live with our bodies, to see them as neutral.

Not a single one of these images comes from a fringe franchise, though in the outskirts of art the prejudices of the mainstream are of course regularly replicated. Not a single one has anything to say about fatness other than "it's gross" and "it's evidence of moral decay."

Fatness is a neutral trait, like being short or tall or left-handed. If you can't imagine including a fat character in your art, if you've never done so, or if you've only done so when that character is a brainless enemy or object of disgust, look at yourself.

Nothing about us is less human than you.